Daniel's Medical Model

Although issues of behavioral problems and learning disabilities in children do receive substantial attention from both parents and teaching staff, rarely are the wider aspects of these ‘disorders’ considered in such discussions. In the case of Daniel, a 14-year-old Black British boy recently placed in a ‘special educational needs’ stream at his school due to behavioral problems, both his diagnosis and the resulting treatment are problematic. In attributing his behavior to individual causes, there has been a complete lack of acknowledgment of the effects of the racist taunting Daniel experiences from classmates at his largely white school. While according to the medical model, Daniel’s behavior is ‘abnormal’ and must be treated by placement in a separate stream, this must be contested as labeling his behavior as a psychiatric problem and using segregation as treatment demonstrates the use of medical legitimacy in drawing attention away from structural issues, while also excluding Daniel rather than addressing racism as the likely root of the problem. Despite the fact that Daniel’s case is certainly not unique, his example will be used to illustrate the problems with a perspective based on the medical model, with emphasis on the value of directly addressing both race and other structural aspects. In constructing the argument, the conceptual …show more content…
According to this model, Daniel is merely acting out or is exhibiting abnormal behavior, but social aspects such as his exposure to racism at school are not considered. By labeling his behavior as purely individual and medical in nature, all attention is drawn away from structural issues involved both with the medical system itself, and Daniel’s experiences. This has effectively led to the school completely ignoring explicit racist

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